More Plastic

Today we said goodbye again to the sailboat racers. Three of crew actually stayed behind and are going to take the plane back tonight. They are going to try to get aboard other boats in Honolulu to continue the race to Santa Cruz. The westernaustralia2011.com and the other boat will take a while to repair their masts, and may get a late start for the next leg of the race.

The BBC crew came down to the pier to see them off. It worked out perfectly for their story on the effects of plastic since one of the sailboat crew spotted an albatross chick with plastic hanging out of its mouth. They are doing a few stories on plastic around the world, and for those of you who get BBC news, they will be doing a live broadcast on Tuesday. I'll let you know the details if I find out. Anyway John K. removed the plastic and all is well.

This is the chick with plastic problems.

Here's the BBC crew with John Klavitter explaining the situation.

This is what the bird had. It looks like a little plastic mesh bag for produce or something. Normally the chick would have just swallowed the whole thing and it would have taken up space for food, but the hook caught on its mouth. It probably has more plastic in its stomach, but at least this piece is out.